Attorneys seek bond for David Williams

OXFORD – Attorneys for convicted murderer David Williams asked Tuesday for bail to be set while he awaits a new trial.
Williams, 28, of Olive Branch was convicted in 2008 in the stabbing death of Demetria Bracey of Jackson three years earlier. He was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison.
But in November, the Mississippi Supreme Court agreed that enough trial errors occurred to warrant a new proceeding in Lafayette County.
The court’s 5-4 decision stated that the jury should have been allowed to consider him guilty of assisted suicide, instead of murder.
The maximum penalty for murder is life in prison; for assisted suicide, 10 years.
In the bond motion, Williams’ attorneys David Hill and Tiffany Kilpatrick of Oxford say that because his conviction was reversed, “David is again clothed with the presumption of innocence” and has shown the court he is not a flight risk.
Until his conviction, Williams was free on $100,000 bond.
District Attorney Ben Creekmore was not immediately available to comment on whether his office will support or oppose the new request.
Williams and Bracey were students at the University of Mississippi in 2007. He said her death was part of a suicide pact, which he couldn’t complete on himself.
The case returns to Judge Andrew Howorth, and District Attorney Ben Creekmore said it will be a priority.
In the Supreme Court decision, Justice George Carlson wrote that looking at that evidence, a juror “could conclude that Williams and Bracey had entered into a suicide pact.”
That decision ended any more appeals by the state.
In the motion, Williams’ attorneys say he will live with his parents in Olive Branch.